


Lose To You

by 2amcoffeerants (fullsunx)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Basically an adult game of chicken, Denial of Feelings, Did I mention they're stubborn, Emotional Hurt, Enemies to Lovers, Explicit Language, Fake Marriage, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Happy Ending, Hurt, Idiots in Love, Kinda, Light Angst, M/M, Mentioned Kim Jungwoo (NCT), Mentioned Lee Jeno, Mentioned Na Jaemin, Mentions of Blood, Mercernary Hyuck, Mild Sexual Content, Refusing to back down because they're stubborn, Sexual Tension, Unreliable Narrator, ceo mark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:27:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25799683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullsunx/pseuds/2amcoffeerants
Summary: Haechan is stubborn, and Mark Lee is his first and only assigned target.This might be a game to the both of them, but winning might just mean losing themselves in the process.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 33
Kudos: 292





	Lose To You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aurorasparrowmist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurorasparrowmist/gifts).



> A belated birthday fic for my favourite person on twitter and the first person I ever shared my writing with 💕 I was literally almost done the day of but then my MacBook broke and I haven't been in the mood to write but I had to get it out somehow 🥺
> 
> I was inspired by [this tweet](https://twitter.com/thorisgay/status/1285524651498770433)! And with how stubborn Markhyuck both are, this took over my mind 😅 I hope you enjoy!

Haechan is stubborn.

Mark Lee is his first and only assigned target. He's in it for the long term, he knows. This mission was assigned to him because his supervisors know how stubborn he is and how he never backs down.

Mark Lee: the son of some extravagantly rich CEO in Korea. Lee Donghyuck has to win him over, to have him wrapped around his fingers to do his bidding, to get Mark Lee of NCT Corporations to give him half or more of his shares when his father inevitably dies (That's probably Jungwoo's job, but it won't be long term. It'll be a simple snipe in the head or a dunk of a pill in a drink, he bets).

It's surprisingly easy.

He can immediately feel Mark's eyes glaze over his black tailored pants (exactly how Mark Lee likes office wear) fitting snugly around his hips and his thighs as he plops down onto the seat opposite Mark Lee. He can tell Mark is watching his lips in his private office as he introduces himself sweetly as his new assistant. Haechan’s done his research. He knows what Mark likes. And it's easy to be all that and more when it comes to Donghyuck.

He's one of the top trained mercenaries after all. He was carefully chosen with reason. He went through all that training to ensure he would have shatterproof imitations and identities, to be well-rounded and prepared for whatever the mission will throw at him.

The key trick to acting authentic is to bring as much of your true self onto the table and only lie if you have to. Haechan enjoys a daily dose of iced americano, likes cheesy tv shows that give him a good cry. It’s easy to add these into Lee Donghyuck’s character, and Mark soon goes out of his way to order him his favourite cup of iced americano from that one coffee shop opposite their building instead of the one downstairs because Donghyuck insisted the coffee shop opposite tasted better, passes him the fifth tissue after Donghyuck cries about Elle having to decide between Noah and Lee in the kissing booth sequel when he comes over to hang out. Donghyuck quickly and seamlessly enters into Mark’s life like he had been there all along. At this rate, he won’t even need to marry him before Mark hands over the pot of gold.

Donghyuck keeps a mental tally of all his achievements towards the goal, each one another step towards the finish line, and every stroke he adds to it sends a warmth across his chest. The number of times he’s gotten a flustered reaction out of Mark Lee at the office: 10. The number of “accidental” grazes with Mark’s hands or thighs: 4. The number of times he’s unashamedly flirted with Mark Lee and hinted at a possible date: 2.

Haechan promises that Donghyuck will work on those numbers, especially the last one. Mark Lee’s reactions to his complete unbashfulness seems to be to blush harder, and it's pretty entertaining to have someone react to every movement you make with such dynamic reactions.

Donghyuck can’t tell anyone about this game he’s made for himself, but he _loves_ the challenge. After all, he just can’t live without winning in life, in games, and in “love”. Life is boring without games, without winning. (He only thinks that because he doesn’t ever lose.)

Things quickly fall into its rightful place, and Donghyuck is having a dinner date with the future CEO before they know it. A little alcohol and a brief bout of footsie under the table manages to get him into Mark's penthouse between Mark's legs. He's calling Mark’s name embarrassingly loudly as he falls out of his high, falls out of the sky for Mark to catch him.

(He tells himself he's being loud because Mark likes to hear how good he is, that egotistical bastard, but he won't deny that Mark is good in bed.)

When Mark carefully cleans both of them up, reaches for his head and gently snuggles him into his chest, Donghyuck reaches around for Mark's waist as he drifts off to sleep on his chest.

This job may be his first and his last, but Haechan thinks he’s got it in the bag.

-

Mark is stubborn.

He knows of his father’s worth, knows his father has a lot of enemies after going down the corporate path with the dirty cash of illegal who knows what.

He’s paranoid, cautious of the people he lets into his social circle. Paranoid enough to hire an informant at the young age of 15 despite his friends telling him that there's no need to worry.

And rightfully paranoid, since he receives information in his 23rd year of living regarding how one of his father’s rivals is going to try and insidiously win over control of the company. It'll be through Mark’s future assets when his father eventually dies, hiding among the people he cares about so he'll feel the utmost betrayal.

(Oh, the informant also tells him how his father will die. He doesn’t care about that old geezer anyway, so he keeps that information to himself.)

But as the old saying goes, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

So when he meets this man with tight fitted office pants to accentuate his waist and thighs with a loose button top that almost falls off his shoulders in a borderline scandalous way (just his type), he knows he’s in for a treat.

Lee Donghyuck is everything he wants in a partner. He's all tongue in cheek, playfully stealing his pen before hiding it in his briefcase with a note and a flirtatious heart signed next to Donghyuck’s name. Mark knows his name isn’t real, it can’t be real, but he plays along anyway, rolling the name across his tongue in memory.

Donghyuck is fresh into the business world with a recent MBA, uncorrupted by the dealings and harsh reality of his field. He's much too playful; Mark doesn't know how he got the job (probably pulled some strings to get the mission going), but he does it well when he puts his mind to it. 

(Mark also notes that the slight purse of Donghyuck’s lips when he focuses distracts Mark probably a little too much to be productive). 

Mark makes it a game for himself to determine what is created for Donghyuck’s character and what is authentic. For someone so sweet and charming, it seems out of taste to enjoy that disgustingly bitter iced americano Donghyuck so happily enjoys everyday during working hours. There’s an extremely sly manner in the way Donghyuck steals (and manages to unlock) his phone and adds his own number with a flirty selfie as the contact photo. 

What confuses Mark however, are the small moments of what he thinks is vulnerability. 

Donghyuck is surprisingly weak for the sappiest cliché-filled teen rom coms. At first Mark had thought it was some ploy to get Mark to feel overprotective of him, to ramp up his possessive instincts so they could get together quicker, but after the fifth tissue he isn’t so sure anymore (and overprotective is indeed happening, Mark doesn’t like that very much).

But Donghyuck doesn’t mess up ever, and whoever sent him clearly chose Donghyuck because he was good at his real job. There are no obvious references to his father’s will or assets; just a casual mention of Mark’s father once and that’s it. That’s exactly how he prefers his partners— Someone who’s not in it for his money or his status.

But that’s not going to happen, is it? Donghyuck is in it for the long game, waiting for the moment when Mark will open up and give him what his employer wants. Mark isn't going to give it to him this easy. They’re going to have to be in a relationship, become engaged, get _married_ before he will even come close to sharing his father’s distribution of wealth with him.

And Mark knows his own tenacity. No one beats him in his own game. He’ll drag this on, tug on the rope with an occasional scent while Donghyuck will chase after it like a bloodhound. Mark will drag this on for however long it takes before Donghyuck breaks, whimpering with his tail between his legs.

Mark’s been in the cutthroat corporation industry for too long. The only win he wants is the one where Donghyuck loses.

So Mark plays along. He kisses Donghyuck one night after their dinner date, brings him back to his penthouse and ingrains into his memory how Donghyuck’s honey smooth skin roams across his (It’s everything he’s dreamed of). He can’t figure out how Donghyuck knows how he likes to be kissed, how he likes it in bed, but he's impressed at how much Donghyuck’s figured out in order to get to this stage at all.

Mark is enjoying this game, but it’s not really a game if he has all the cards in his hand.

But just like in business and life, people don’t call out cheats when they have the upper hand. Mark certainly doesn't.

-

Donghyuck may be stubborn, but Mark even more so.

It’s a year into their relationship, and everything is as perfect as Mark would have wanted it to be if it was all real. Donghyuck is a people pleaser, immersing himself perfectly with his pretentious family like birds of a feather. He pleases even his father who had originally been expecting Mark to marry someone of similar status and education (Donghyuck’s got the education part in the bag even though the authenticity of his degree may be questionable— but intelligence is something he doesn’t lack). Mark really doesn’t know how he pulled that trick off.

“Mark, I can tell he really loves you,” His mother smiles warmly at some gala for the elite as they watch Donghyuck laugh with Mark’s father and his associates from a distance. Mark clutches his glass of wine a little tighter, ignoring how the old men look at Donghyuck like he’s prey.

Oh, they’re in for a treat. Donghyuck is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a faux fragile fox and they don’t even know it. Donghyuck has his net casted wide, but only because he knows he’s quick enough to trap them all.

“Do you think he’s the one?” Mark’s mother asks, wrinkles prevalent by the corners of her eyes as she smiles. Mark wonders if the assassins will kill her along with the old geezer too. 

Mark had expected his parents of all people to see through Donghyuck’s disingenuity. 

“I think I’m in love with him,” Mark replies, and apparently his mother can’t see through his disingenuity either.

-

Haechan has been waiting for this moment.

It's easy to predict where a normal person would hide an engagement ring. Donghyuck sees the case, but doesn’t open it. He doesn’t want to ruin his own surprise— where would the fun be in that? But he does make sure he’s all ready and dressed up when Mark whisks him away on an impromptu getaway to the Grand Canyon on his own private jet. Donghyuck buzzes with nervous energy, trying his very best to make it seem like he has no idea what's happening. Even though he’s been lying to Mark this entire time, this lie in particular is incredibly hard to keep. Mark is also a terrible liar, has a _horrible_ poker face when it’s not business-related, constantly twisting his Calatrava watch on his wrist as a nervous distraction.

Mark doesn't get down on one knee. Lee Donghyuck had been adamant about that, had dropped hints here and there as to how his perfect imaginary proposal would go.

_Somewhere private for just the two of us. Somewhere outdoors so we can take beautiful photos to frame on our wall. A simple, minimalistic ring. No bending down on one knee, Mark Lee. You and I both know that first of all, we would both hate that, and two, we’re equals— partners. No one needs to bend down for the other, no one needs to bend over for someone else unless we’re talking about sex, baby._

The area is void of the usual hustle and bustle of tourists— Mark must've paid for it with his excessive amounts of money. Donghyuck’s hands shake and he covers his mouth as his eyes start to water. The wind makes it easier to tear up when dust has been constantly flying into his eyes.

“Will you marry me?” Mark asks shakily amidst the wind.

Despite being encased in a lush red velvet case, the ring held inside is simple. It has a modest diamond embedded into it and engraved on the inner rim is one of their inside jokes. It's nothing extravagant and showy. It's how Haechan would've liked his ring. How Donghyuck would've liked the ring.

It’s been two years, and now he can witness all the effort he put in come to fruition.

It's easy to say yes. After all, this was what he was waiting for.

“Yes,” Donghyuck replies as he starts to full on sob, and Mark immediately puts the ring on his finger, pulling him into an embrace, lips slotted into his.

It doesn't take much to act ecstatic at the event.

-

Mark has been waiting for this moment.

He wasn't half surprised that Donghyuck stuck by him when they were only dating. After all, the assets would only go to him if they were married. So Mark lays the next bait in the form of an engagement ring.

He nervously plans out the details, fumbling to get everything perfect (He doesn't know why he's putting in this much effort or why he's this nervous, but he blames it on his perfectionist side that has been cultured through years of working in the business).

He picks out a simple ring. No need for something fancy when what they have isn’t real. And if everything goes accordingly, they won’t have a marriage at all (It’s not because Donghyuck had been talking about what kind of rings he prefers wearing, no. Mark doesn’t care about what Donghyuck thinks about a ring that he’s going to wear for a maximum of a few months).

The proposal goes seamlessly as planned. Donghyuck looks happy, happier than Mark’s ever seen him. With how much time they’ve been spending together lately, Mark wonders how Donghyuck isn’t tired of the act or how he doesn’t slip up at all.

He’s surprised at himself as well. To be going against a professional yet not having made a blunder. He’s just more patient, more stubborn than Donghyuck is, he chuckles quietly to himself as Donghyuck rests his head on his shoulder when they fly back on the plane to Korea.

The slight shaking of his shoulder from his chuckling wakes Donghyuck up, and he looks at Mark with sleepy eyes that had just been crying fake tears moments ago. Mark only shakes his head with a smile, gently placing Donghyuck’s head back down onto his shoulder.

“It’s okay bub, go back to sleep,” He says softly as he runs his hand through Donghyuck’s hair and the younger snuggles his cheeks deeper into his shoulder.

Hook, line, and sinker, Mark thinks.

-

The final trap comes in the form of a prenup.

He hires the best of lawyers (internationally, might he add) to write one, using serpentine and convoluted words that mean nothing. He just needs phrases that’ll let Donghyuck know he will get absolutely nothing to his name if he divorces with Mark Lee of NCT Corporations.

It’s wordy, but he knows Donghyuck will be smart enough to see between the lines. It’s a warning, a message that his last two years of work have gone to waste and that he’ll have nothing if he continues on with this façade.

 _That he’s lost,_ Mark thinks with glee.

Mark is waiting like a hungry lion for his meal. After two years of waiting, he’s ravenous for his prize.

When Mark brings up the prenup, Donghyuck readily agrees.

“Anything you want, babe,” Donghyuck says as he turns and bites Mark’s lower lip and continues kissing him like nothing at all, and Mark can’t help but let out a groan.

When they finally sit down the week after in front of the lawyers Mark has hired, Donghyuck eyes the lines carefully with a smile on his face. Mark waits for a reaction. Donghyuck isn’t dumb. He must know what it means.

“That looks perfect, darling,” Donghyuck beams as he reaches for the pen and signs.

At first Mark thinks that maybe the lawyers wrote the prenup a little too well, but he quickly dismisses that thought as quickly as it came. Donghyuck isn’t dumb. There’s absolutely no way he doesn’t know the connotations behind this carefully crafted contract.

So be it, Mark thinks. There are plenty of opportunities left for Donghyuck to back out.

And when he does, Mark will relish in his long awaited victory.

-

Mark didn't think they'd get this far.

It's the night before their wedding ceremony, and Donghyuck is busy chattering about tomorrow's festivities, how excited he is to see Mark's suit, how he hopes the media won't be there.

“I'm excited too,” he smiles half heartedly with Donghyuck nestled under his chin.

Donghyuck has not shown a hint of hesitation even now. If they get married tomorrow, if he says yes to the vows on the altar, it'll be on his name for life.

Mark gives him one out.

They're on the bed now, Mark on top of Donghyuck as he slides in synchrony to Donghyuck's short bouts of euphoria.

“Donghyuck,” he growls as he feels every one of Donghyuck’s sighs traveling down to his dick. “Who sent you?”

Donghyuck is too far gone to give him a horrified expression that he definitely would've had if he was lucid. He would've been wide eyed as he covered his mouth in his hands with an oh-fuck expression on his face. But Donghyuck is pinned under him, chanting a mantra of “oh my god Mark,” and “Mark I'm close,” and the only sign of realization is the fingernails scratching lightly at his back.

“What’s your real name?” Mark then asks as he tries to hang on for a little longer, has Donghyuck’s wrists above his head pinned between his arms.

Donghyuck squirms underneath, cheeks flushed, back arched as he says something unintelligible between the small gasps coming from his heart shaped mouth.

“What? I can’t hear you,” Mark whispers into Donghyuck’s ears before sucking a little too hard at his jawline the way Donghyuck likes it. (He’s probably a closeted sadist considering how much he enjoys having Donghyuck wrapped in his hands, how Donghyuck can’t do anything but follow his lead even though he knows he’s fucked, literally and metaphorically).

“Donghyuck… is my real name,” Donghyuck finally manages to let out before Mark’s grip tightens around him like a vice, and they can only focus on calling each other's names and coming down from that high.

They clean up silently after that. They don't speak at all, not even when Donghyuck leaves the room. The shut of the door is silent, final.

Mark is ready for Donghyuck to be gone tomorrow, has been ready for Donghyuck to leave since the beginning. He knew this was going to happen since the moment he met Donghyuck in his office all tantalizing and tempting. He knew Donghyuck was never his, so this shouldn’t hurt one bit.

He cries himself to sleep.

-

The next morning he’s woken up to chatter from the groomsmen about how beautiful his fiancé looks this morning in the other room. He's not allowed to see, so he can only let himself be bustled about by the intricate plans Donghyuck had already detailed out beforehand (“You're going to be so lost, babe, I just know it. But don't worry, everyone's got you,” Donghyuck had said before). Mark doesn't have to worry about anything— all he has to do is stand in the middle of his room like a scarecrow as people order him to put on his suit, hold onto the vows.

Everyone tells him how breathtaking Donghyuck looks in the other room. How Donghyuck says he’s nervous but extremely excited, how he’s taking it much better than Mark is.

Donghyuck is still here, even after everything that happened last night.

 _Donghyuck is still here_ , Mark’s brain echoes once again in a more frantic manner.

Mark had only planned every little thing up until last night. He had meticulously planned everything up until this point, because he never expected to get this far. He expected screaming and panic and mass hysteria today about how Donghyuck was missing, but not… this.

His mind goes blank. His groomsmen usher him around, give him directions so he doesn’t have to think at all. They probably think it’s his nerves about the wedding.

His mother frowns at how disoriented he looks, how swollen his eyes are, but only pats his shoulders as she ushers him out. Everything from then on is just a blur until he’s suddenly in front of the altar with Jeno (His father is finally dead, thank God) and a pastor who reassures him quietly that everything will be fine.

 _Nothing is fine_ , Mark screams internally as he puts up a small smile.

Mark says yes first. _He_ isn’t going to be the one saying no today in front of his friends, his family, the media. None of them know that it’s all a game to him, a game that Donghyuck is playing as well (even if he doesn’t know), but Mark won’t be the one to lose here. Donghyuck played his game, and after realizing he had lost, decided to pull this one last trick to embarrass him. Mark isn’t going to play by his rules, and Donghyuck will have to be the one to hit the final nail into his own coffin. 

There's no way Donghyuck will let it get any further. It's already gone too far, and after yesterday, he should know that Mark has known that his intentions hadn’t been real.

 _Say no, say no, say no,_ Mark chants in his mind, eyes practically boring into Donghyuck’s skull as he recites his vows robotically.

Donghyuck is returning his look with eyes full of love, happiness, smiling as tears rim the side of his eyes. Despite how Mark stares at him, he doesn’t break eye contact at all.

Donghyuck says yes.

Mark doesn’t respond, standing completely still like a stiff piece of cardboard. Donghyuck is the one to lean forward to kiss him, to reach his hands around his neck and put on a show.

Mark wonders how Donghyuck can lie right to his face without an ounce of hesitation even after having his cover blown. He can only dig his nails into his palm as he finally gets over his shock and leans into the kiss in front of their friends and family. He isn’t going to let things go the way Donghyuck wants them to, and he comes out of his daze to return the kiss with equal fervor (It’s probably a little too inappropriate for a public post-ceremony kiss, but Mark isn’t going to back down).

If he was a child, he’d say this was a game of chicken, except neither of them are chickens, clearly.

-

Haechan is stubborn to a fault. Stubborn enough that he won’t back down even if he’s losing.

He knows he’s screwed when six months into their relationship he wants more. He tells himself it’s because he’s so immersed in being Lee Donghyuck that he’s starting to confuse his own poor mind.

It becomes easier to not pretend, but harder to keep it up.

And then Mark Lee asks him to move in with him, tells him to quit his job so he can essentially become a trophy boyfriend and sit all pretty at home waiting for him every night. Despite all his gut instincts telling him that it's a stupid idea and that he’s opening himself to gaps in his identity, he says yes.

Eight months in, two after the move in, he’s wide awake staring at the creamy white ceiling of their shared bedroom together and the smell of burning eggs from the kitchen when he realizes he’s in love with Mark.

He's stupid enough to fall for how Mark wakes up earlier than him every day to make him a fresh cup of ground coffee. Stupid enough to fall for how Mark smiles and clutches his hand a little tighter as encouragement, arm a little closer around his waist every time some gross sixty year old business man approaches him to ask about how he entered the business scene.

He _isn't_ stupid enough to miss these feelings. Haechan is nothing if observant, and he'd really be terrible at his job if he didn't learn to quickly recognize his own mistakes and weaknesses.

His mental board tallying his mistakes is blank except for the large red line right across the whole damn thing.

He’s trying so hard to push away his feelings, to tell himself that it’s just a job, that it can only be a job— that he doesn’t realize he’s been found out until it’s too late.

When Mark asks him what his real name is, Donghyuck has his eyes closed as sighs escape his lips. He’s so over the edge that he just gives Mark everything he wants.

Lee Donghyuck is, _was_ , his name. Haechan brought the most authentic part of him, his name he had left behind at the orphanage, to include in his fake identity because he knows— the most perfect lies are the ones that hide behind half-truths.

To be fair, he hadn’t heard anybody call him by Donghyuck since he was eleven. It might as well have been as foreign to him as the façade he has on.

But maybe he had chosen Donghyuck as his name because he wanted to hear someone call his real name with endearment and adoration. Maybe Donghyuck was desperate for love, was lonely, and let himself play the fool he swore he’d never become.

And that’s how he ended up in this predicament.

He wordlessly slips out of Mark’s bedroom. He’s found out now, obviously. He’s failed his mission. But he’s in love with Mark.

All his self preservation instincts tell him to run. He either ends up dead or he ends up dead. He’s failed his mission, so he should get himself another fake ID not issued by his boss and disappear off the face of the earth to somewhere no one will ever find him.

 _But you love Mark,_ his brain echoes again.

His self preservation instincts that have been honed from all the training for this mission fails him, and he lays in bed the whole night, thinking, unsleeping.

He gets up early and blames it on pre-ceremony nerves.

He came into Mark’s life as a hardworking office assistant whose parents died young and spent every waking hour during his university degree working or studying, and if he dies, he'll die as such.

Everyone helping him get ready in this room is a friend he’s met because of Mark. Jaemin is busy ordering people around like the secretary he is, Jeno keeps telling him jokes to get him to relax (Haechan reassures him that he’s not nervous for the wedding, because he really isn't— Not for that reason anyway), and the room is full of jittery excitement, but all he feels is anxious.

Mark must know he hasn't run off by now. He wonders if Mark will reject him in front of everyone to humiliate him. Expose Donghyuck's scheme, show everyone what a conniving sham he is.

When Mark doesn't do any of those, Donghyuck wonders if that is for better or worse.

-

The whole ceremony and post ceremony is full of real excitement for a fraudulent relationship, and Mark can't help but laugh at the irony of it all. The tension between him and Donghyuck at the afterparty is a whole other beast entirely, and Donghyuck is stuck by his hip. Mark wants that. They need to talk, clearly. It’s gone too far. But Donghyuck is attached to his hip along with the chain of guests that come to congratulate them. Mark needs him _alone._

Considering how long he’s faked a smile in front of Donghyuck to keep their relationship looking real, it’s surprisingly difficult to do the same when met with the rest of the wedding crowd and their constant chitchat. He has to talk about how much he loves Donghyuck, how happy he is that everything is going smoothly (when it isn’t, god, someone get him out of here). Donghyuck either adds in bits and pieces here and there or completely takes over the conversation with love-drunk eyes.

Mark is so tired that when he finally gets Donghyuck alone on the plane for their honeymoon right after the outrageously extravagant show that he doesn't think he'll have the energy for the inevitable confrontation.

(Or not.)

“Don’t worry ma’am, I’ll make sure to take care of your son! I know how careless he can be when it isn't about his work,” Donghyuck adds a giggle as he talks on the phone with Mark’s mother all the way till they get on the plane. _He’s delaying his eventual demise,_ Mark thinks amusedly.

Mark knows he's at an advantage having him at checkmate. There's absolutely no way Donghyuck will be able to get out of this. He's built his wings out of hoaxes to reach Mark’s wealth. Now all Mark has to do is watch his Icarus fall from the sky.

Surprisingly, neither of them speak a word on the plane. In fact, they don't speak at all until they reach their private lodging at their honeymoon on one of Mark’s father’s private islands.

Donghyuck is the first to speak, and Mark almost scoffs when he does.

“So, where do you want to go?” Donghyuck asks after a sigh.

Mark rolls his eyes. “You think I want to spend my holiday with my _husband-_ ” Mark adds extra bite to that word, which gains him the satisfaction of watching Donghyuck flinch, “who went so far as to procure a fake identity to get married and take away everything from me?”

“I didn't lie yesterday night,” Donghyuck starts. “Donghyuck really is my name-”

“Yes, defend the one thing you brought into my life that isn't a lie!” Mark points his finger at Donghyuck's chest as he steps closer towards Donghyuck until their foreheads almost touch (He ignores how it means he's at kissable distance). “Let's not forget how you got here. You only got to this point because I let you.”

The shadow over Donghyuck's face makes him look all the more menacing. 

“Get out of my sight,” Mark snarls as he steps back and grabs his own suitcase again. He turns away from Donghyuck, walking off. “I don't want to see you until we get back.”

“But loving you wasn't a lie,” Mark hears quietly behind him, and he stops in his tracks but doesn't turn back. It would hurt too much to.

Mark should know better than to believe a liar. Should know better than to admit his biggest secret to Donghyuck. But he feels his heart fall apart in his hands as he admits the one thing he's been denying all along.

“And I didn't lie either,” Mark replies as he heads off for the private resort alone.

And Donghyuck listens, surprisingly. Mark doesn't see him in his room, doesn't see him as he tries to relax on the beach. Mark doesn't care if he's hiding out in the forest, camping with makeshift tents out of branches and leaves. He doesn't care if Donghyuck is living primitively until the week is over.

(Mark does notice how the kitchen has been making two sets of meals but only giving him one. He pretends he doesn't see that.)

But Mark sees Donghyuck in his dreams, taunting him even though Mark should be the only one capable in this situation to do so.

He relives the moments of happiness he's had with Donghyuck. How beautiful his smile would be first thing in the morning when Mark would hand him his cup of freshly brewed coffee. How he always cleans up after Mark’s mess because he knows he's too busy thinking about work. How Donghyuck will randomly reach for his hand and intertwine their fingers for no reason, snuggle his face up to Mark’s cheeks to get him to take a break from work.

After the week is over, Mark comes to the conclusion that he doesn't hate Donghyuck. He just wanted to win.

With how the media will stir the pot if they divorce, Mark is willing to keep the marriage official but only on paper (He won't admit out loud that he at least considers Donghyuck a friend).

On the day of his departure back to the real world of nonstop meetings and contracts, Mark is notified that Donghyuck left the night before. Mark had planned to have an amicable conversation with Donghyuck in the privacy of the plane before they'd have to face his family and friends again, but Donghyuck leaving before him gives him more time to think it through.

He knows Donghyuck will be home. He has nowhere else to go.

Mark requests no one but his chauffeur to pick him up. Donghyuck must be surrendering, sending him a text about having a talk when he gets home.

Mark opens the door to see Donghyuck nervously sitting in the couch. The moment he recognizes Mark, he stands up and walks urgently towards him.

“Mark-” Donghyuck starts, but Mark interrupts him.

“Look, Donghyuck, I was angry and upset but after clearing my head I need to clarify that I don't hate you,” Mark starts rambling off the script he's thought out in his head so the words spill one after the other.

“I treated it like a game in the beginning, and wanted to win,” He confesses quickly. “If what you said on the island wasn't a lie,” Mark swallows, “then I'm willing to try again from the beginning with no more dishonesty.”

Donghyuck’s eyes flicker quickly. “Mark, I-”

And then a loud crack pierces through the air, loud enough that Mark closes his eyes to wince in shock.

He opens his eyes to help with the vertigo he feels from the ringing in his ears and what likely is Donghyuck's tight grip on his arm (The smell of coffee, his favourite cologne).

But there’s also the metallic smell of blood in the air.

Mark barely has a second to react before Donghyuck pulls him down, and Mark struggles to bear the weight of both of them.

He watches in horror as Donghyuck clutches at the blossoming wound on his side and Mark presses his own hand over it as well without thinking.

“Well, Mark Lee, it seems like you've won,” Donghyuck’s half lidded eyes are like crescents as blood spills from his mouth. His puffy lips are tinted red, are tinted with _his own blood._

Donghyuck puffs out weak shallow breaths like he can’t breath, and Mark realizes he too is finding it hard to breath for a different reason.

Mark can’t do anything except clutch harder at the gaping hole in Donghyuck’s abdomen, scrunching up his fingers that are now sticky with crimson.

“This isn’t a win if you’re not here with me,” Mark’s voice breaks at the end as he sobs, trying to hold onto Donghyuck but it feels like grasping at crumbling sand that slips past his fingers in an hourglass. It’s Donghyuck’s hourglass, their hourglass, indicating that Donghyuck’s time, their time together, is running out.

“We’ll see each other eventually,” Donghyuck smiles bitterly as he lets out a wet cough. “Wow, this hurts a lot more than I expected,” He adds a little later with what seems to be an attempt to lighten the atmosphere. Mark would have hit him already if he wasn't already hurt.

“Where? In the afterlife?” Mark sobs. “In hell?” He adds before he gets clocked in the head with what he thinks is the magazine of a gun and he blacks out.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Mark, in his cold pristine penthouse-style office, does not look up from his paperwork when his door opens after two solid knocks.

Mark doesn’t comment about how annoyed he is that the newcomer doesn’t wait for him to speak before walking in. He isn’t going to give them the attention. It’s not worth his time.

“Mr. Lee, I’m pleased to be working with you from now on.” The voice is soft, song-like. Every word sounds like it’s laced with honey, to lure him in and trap him.

He’s familiar with honey-laced traps. He’s willingly jumped in before, but he won’t ever do it again. He went in with success in mind, and returned with a win in theory, but a heavy loss in his heart.

He won’t let himself fall again.

Mark wonders if Jaemin chose this new secretary _precisely_ because he sounds like his ex-husband (He stills just slightly as his mind processes over the last word, _Ex-husband_ ).

He twists the band across his ring finger out of habit. It’s been a year since he’s seen Donghyuck. A year since he had Donghyuck’s blood in his hands, since he saw the assassin take Donghyuck unconscious, dead, he doesn’t know, away from him.

Mark is going to have a word with Jaemin later on. There are some buttons that should not be pressed.

“It’s a pleasure to be working with you as well,” Mark replies monotonously as he signs off another page on this contract and robotically flips to the next page to repeat the same cycle again. “Jaemin never told me your name. What should I call you?”

Jaemin didn’t tell him anything except that he was finally having a new assistant. Mark _really_ needs him to stop acting like he’s the one running the place.

“Lee Donghyuck,” the voice says, and Mark’s instinct is to jerk his head up at the name, only to see golden skin, pearly whites behind a mischievous grin and a too-loose button shirt with too much collar bone showing to be office appropriate.

The large windows behind Mark oversee the vast skyscrapers next to NCT’s office building, letting in sunlight to brighten the glow on Donghyuck’s skin. Mark thinks he’s hallucinating, and the glow of the edges outlining Donghyuck says it all. He’s officially gone crazy. He’s seeing ghosts. He’s now a nutty psychic and can see the dead—

Then Donghyuck grabs his necktie and pulls him in for a kiss.

Mark instinctively reaches for Donghyuck’s hair, his neck, his everything. The physical act of running his hands through Donghyuck’s hair grounds him so he can tell himself that Donghyuck really is here, alive in front of him.

The kiss is desperate and Donghyuck lets Mark roam all over. Donghyuck lets him confirm his very existence, ingrain the placement of his moles and the curvature of his jaw and the slant of his nose and his pillowy lips— all of it, into his memory like a sponge soaking up water.

“I’m back,” Donghyuck says against his lips, and Mark has such a big smile on his face that his cheeks hurt.

_Donghyuck’s back._

“I thought I lost you,” Mark whispers, but he quickly moves on from his sadness. He has Donghyuck here with him now. Nothing in the past matters anymore.

“That got a little bit out of hand, but I had to deal with the mercenary side of things first,” Donghyuck tries to speak as Mark continues reminding himself of what kissing Donghyuck feels like.

“My mission success rate is now frozen at zero percent because of you,” Donghyuck laughs as he continues. “Thank God I'm retired now, because no one would hire me with that.”

Mark laughs along too. “Well, you were either going to get zero or a hundred. Now you get a Mark Lee instead.”

“Hm, I’m not complaining,” Donghyuck replies with a hum on his lips, and Mark has the passing thought about how he's won in life before Donghyuck’s insistency drags him back into the kiss (Because dealing with Donghyuck requires all of him, but like Donghyuck, he’s not complaining either when his husband is back here with him).

Either way, Jaemin isn't getting the run down Mark had thought he was going to give, and Mark doesn't think he can have a lucky streak better than the one right now including Donghyuck.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_Jungwoo, what the fuck?_

_I made the reaction all the more realistic, aren’t you happy?_

_You scared Mark so much, oh my god._

_You played along too, saying all those sappy farewells like you were on your deathbed._

_I might as well have been with your shitty aim. You should’ve shot a little more to the side, that hurt like a motherfucker. Also, couldn’t you have at least waited for me to explain first before shooting?_

_Baby, you asked, I delivered. I hope you live the rest of your life happy._

**Author's Note:**

> tldr; a very long game of chicken ^ ^ They both get to win hehe
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, comments are appreciated as always!
> 
> [my twt](https://twitter.com/2amcoffeerants) | [my cc](https://curiouscat.me/2amcoffeerants)


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